China's Wen says Koizumi won't `Own Up' to history

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi won't ``own up'' to his country's history of violence in Asia, making him the cause of a rift in relations with China and a breakdown in talks between the neighbors, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at a regional meeting in Malaysia.

Wen canceled an annual trilateral summit with Koizumi and South Korea's President Roh Moo-Hyun during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur because of Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which has memorials of World War II war criminals among the dead it honors.

The postponement of talks ``is not something that China wants, it's just that Japan's leader won't own up correctly to its history,'' Wen told reporters at Asean's annual summit. ``Good long-term relations are in the interests of the people of both countries, but the leader's continued visits to the shrine seriously hurts the feelings of the Chinese people.''

Wen's remarks follow a Dec. 6 incident in China in which police opened fire on protesters at a coastal village near Hong Kong, killing three and wounding eight. The commander has since been detained by the provincial government, which said his ``wrong actions'' were to blame for the deaths, the New York Times reported.